GREATEST SHOW: Tonight’s opening of Cirque du...

GREATEST SHOW: Tonight’s opening of Cirque du Soleil’s new “Alegria” production at South Coast Plaza is a sellout, with huge crowds expected through its finale March 12. . . . The circus announced Monday that it had generated a record 130,000 advance ticket sales, the most anywhere in the show’s entire 11-year history. Although some seats remain, circus spokesman Marc LaFont says, “they are selling very fast.”

UNCOVERED: The wildly popular Orange County punk band Offspring--its members attended Pacifica High School in Garden Grove--is featured in the latest issue of Rolling Stone. . . . The magazine says the county boasts a rich history of punk (Offspring has 4 million in record sales) that is as self-contained as it is varied. Offspring didn’t make the cover of Rolling Stone though--that went to actress Demi Moore.

ITALIAN NIGHT: Opera Pacific will host local gays and lesbians with a special ticket package for “La Traviata” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Saturday night, including a post-performance supper. . . . Starring that night as Violetta is the acclaimed Italian soprano Tiziana Fabbricini. Spokesman Timothy B. Dunn explains the special package for gays and lesbians: “They’ve been very involved in the arts here and very supportive of opera.”

THE NEW COUNTRY? Some country music loyalists are already disturbed that the Anaheim-based Trinity Broadcasting Network now owns “Twitty City,” the late singer Conway Twitty’s home and museum just outside Nashville. Wait till they hear what Trinity president Paul Crouch intends to do with it. . . . Twitty’s palatial home will become the first of Trinity’s chain of “virtual reality theaters.” Viewers wear goggles that make it seem they are part of the action. First up, says Crouch: “You’ll see the life of Jesus from the point of view of the shepherds.”